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I wait for Andrew to get in his CASKET and for Squidhead to do his thing.
Then I travel towards the position of squad 1, and stop at the edge of the cliff.
If there's still time this turn for a descent:
-I use my FutureVision™ to see what will happen
-And tell everyone what attacks will happen and from where

Then I fly down, sticking close to the canyon wall.

When I see enemies or know they're there (from the vision)
-I fire at one with my electrolaser
-And at one with a triple quantum shot (chance of hitting more than one perhaps )

As soon as I'm at the bottom, I'll land and grab my stuff,
discouple Squid's repair kit,
get out of my ship,
grab the kit,
and run over to cover near the door,
and drop it off there.

When attacked:
-Analyse the enemies with the TARGET
-Attack as many enemies as practical (up to 4) with a plasma streamer blast (time to see the TARGET Helmet in action )
-Rocket kick one of them
-Slash the nearest with my electron sword
-Slash one with my electron sword
-And get back into cover.

Last edited by Dinosawer on Mon Sep 05, 2016 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Take stock of her surroundings
Try to figure out where she is and what the situation is
Examine the room for anything useful
If Doc tries to cauterize Kalah's wound
-Don't scream
-Grit teeth and bear it

Help Doc as much as possible with his one armed operation
Pray to the goddess that she doesn't die this mission
If Kalah has time for anything else
-Try to make something of her comatose dream, like who the spirit may be or why she helped, however angry she might have been

If enemies attack
-Grab Gauss Rife
-Fire a maximum of three times at nearest enemy

((Edited thanks to BFett, Hapchazzard and Cha0zz. ))

Last edited by Grimm on Sun Sep 04, 2016 3:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Grimm wrote:
If Kalah needs to remove helmet to bite down on something
-Replace helmet as soon as she has said biting object in her mouth

((Very, very bad idea if you ask me(and Chaozz, as he said in the Squad 1 thread). You'll just end up knocking yourself out. I don't think you need to bite down on anything(maybe I just don't know the reason?)))

park near dino's ship"Payback! Come out of that container for a second! I want to take a look at your damages!"Fix Payback with the repair kitStuff payback back into the containermount repair kit on dinos ship againfly with the others to the edge of the cliffif dino springs to action (as in flying down and shooting stuff)-put up "ride of the valkyries" over the com system (and over any external speakers if caskets happen to have such things)-Fly down towards squad 2-cover dino if necessary-fire a triple quantum shot towards a large blob of enemies near squad 1's cave entry-land at the cave entry-get payback out of the container-if possible ((aka if tal allows)), make a shield quarter-sphere around the cave entry and my ship. that the cave is separated from the outside but the way between my ship and the cave is clear. let people through if necessary-take my infantry stuff and get out of the ship-fire an LCD - lasgun combo at ballheap-bugs of opportunity (inside the shot limit of course)-Fix most hurt person inside the cave/shield

"I've been doing that this whole time, you fukc-head. Thanks for noticing."

Guard the party while they finish fixing each other up
If any aliens come through the doorway:
- Shoot them with my Lasgun
If I'm certain that no more aliens are coming through:
- Take a brief walk around the crucible, scanning the room for anything that stands out as being relevant to our mission objectives
- Return to my spot guarding the party

The day began with SCAMPS telling you that you had been assigned a mission far beyond your estimated ability, at the order of Those In Charge. They had a special job for you: successfully retrieve a Quantum Orb, undamaged, and have Dinosawer use himself as a test subject before removing it. It would've seemed simple enough - many of you have already done similar things in missions - but there were a few minor problems.

The first problem that reared its ugly head was that the Area of Operations was situated on a roughly Earth-sized moon orbiting a gas giant well within its Roche limit. In non-astronomer terms, that means the moon should've fallen apart and become a ring a long, long time ago. Clearly, something Quantum was afoot, holding the moon together - but for what purpose? Up-top was naturally curious. The second problem was that your dropships were attacked by a long-range Quantum Megaturret before they could enter a stable orbit. Even with the advanced computers aboard your ships, each squad was scattered far from the others and unable to easily regroup. But that's still not the least of your problems.

As you began to explore the surface of this world, it became very clear that while the rest of the moon might seem dead, the bubble area of the AO was far from it. Hostile life of some form abounds, and remnants of alien facilities dot the landscape. Great beasts roam the skies in herds, striking down unwary intruders that attract their attention, and strange bio-mechanical machines attack you at every opportunity. Odd as it may seem, they appear to possess some form of rudimentary intelligence, but any attempts to communicate have been thus far unsuccessful.

Something happened here, long ago, on this little moon of Sitatha. The Quantums seem to have grown some parts of the moon artificially, potentially with the intention of sapping energy from the moon's core... but something went wrong. What you have found so far hints at secrets of a much larger, darker nature than you were sent here to retrieve. The alien installations here are capable of amazing things, yes, but where are their creators? Were they disassembled and consumed in the same way as your former allies from Squad 373, whose ships you found dismantled and destroyed? Did they flee from some imminent catastrophe, or was it something else entirely? You may never know, but some among you intend to find out, for better or for worse.

As we speak, your squads are in danger. Squad Four rushes down a set of dangerous cliffs into a dark ravine, attempting to save the lives of their wounded comrades. Squad Two remains trapped underground as creatures of a mechanical nature eat away at their ships, and Squad Three is dealing with a tower capable of controlling the minds of those nearby.

Kalah Grimm is dying, and BFett unconscious. Squidhead must arrive in time to save their lives or they have no hope. Francis and Blake Lowe's minds are under the control of the enemy, and Foreigner is trying desperately to bring them back before he's forced to destroy them. Fawkes rushes to the rescue, but he may not be in time. Meanwhile, underground, Triggerhappy's CASKET is ruined and crawling with robotic insects, soon to be consumed as he and his squadmates struggle with a trap that can seemingly only be overcome by Unit 4965. Servius has placed himself between 4965 and the enemy to serve as a last line of defense to what seems to be their only hope.

In the distance, the darkness looms about a massive alien structure, shrouded in thick clouds of dust. Platoon 56 must overcome their current struggles, regroup, and boldly face the enemy stronghold if there is to be any hope of finishing their mission. The Megaturret has fallen, thanks to the combined efforts of Dinosawer, Andrew Rice, and Payback-13, and Tartarus's ships can land safely... but they will not come unless the objective is complete. The Quantum Orb must be retrieved and contained, or all is lost.

Cha0zz wrote:Dammit, why did those idiotic things have to break my arm.

When andrew arrives:
- Ask him for the painkillers.

Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound.

Jimmy, use the working drone to take pictures of the drone that's stuck and send them to me (I'd like a description of how the drone is stuck if possible )

If taepilus will assist me:
- cauterise the wound with his help.
Else:
- use future vision to determine the what will happen when I cauterise the wound
- Carefully cauterise the wound taking in mind what I learned from future vision.

Jimmy, use the MUSE to analyse an air sample
Scan the atmospheric composition at my location.
Send all atmospheric data to jimmy

Jimmy use this data to look if you can get a general direction of where the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced. (through the different concentrations in the analysed samples you can make a concentration gradient telling you where the oxygen source is.)

You open comms to Jimmy. "Jimmy, use the working drone to take pictures of the drone that's stuck and send them to me. I'd like a description of how the drone is stuck, if possible."

"On it, boss!" Jimmy chirps, chipper as ever.

To Taepilus, you say, "Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound."

He seems willing enough, and comes over promptly. "All right, but we can't waste too much time doing this," he says warningly as he gets down beside you. "We're vulnerable with only one person on guard."

You glance at Kalah. She's wide awake, and going to feel every second of it. You offer a terse apology for the lack of anesthesia.

The operation begins. Taepilus holds your blowtorch as you'd instructed him and helps hold Kalah's leg still as you heat one of your solid bolts red-hot, searing the wound closed one strip at a time. It's a slow process, and you find yourself sweating uncomfortably in your suit. There's a lot of blood and mutilated flesh everywhere, and you never really were one to enjoy looking at gruesome wounds. To Kalah's credit, she doesn't offer much resistance - though you're not sure she'd really be able to anyway, after having lost as much blood as she has. In the end, the operation is a success, apart from listening to "Ride of the Valkyries" playing over the comms, which absolutely does not match the task at hand.

"Boss, you ready for the info?" you hear. It's Jimmy.

"Yes, send it to my PDA," you order.

You pull out your little datapad and light it up, switching to the incoming video feed. With a slightly unsteady camera, Jimmy shows you your broken drone, which appears to have gotten caught on one of your cargo pod's latches. It's a fairly simple fix - just push it in and pull it back away from the latch - but Jimmy may have felt it wasn't worth the risk of losing another drone. He was right in that, of course. You wouldn't have much liked to lose a second drone. "Thanks, Jimmy," you tell him. "That's exactly what I needed to know. Good work. Can I get you to analyze the atmospheric composition, now?"

"Sure thing," he replies.

Your PDA feed blanks out as he switches his attention to other tasks. You switch as well, getting a decent scan of the atmospheric composition where you are. You see the familiar warning about how your PDA's analyzer may not have 100% accuracy, and start it up. After you're done, you send all the data back to your ship. "Jimmy, use this data to see if you can get a general direction of where the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced." You explain it to him a little more, and he gets to work.

In the meantime, Dinosawer's squad arrives with a display of bravado, charging in through the cave entrance as one (or two, rather, as it seems Francis is missing and the others chose to stay outside). Andrew tosses you a painkiller syringe, and then together he and Squidhead get to work on finishing healing Kalah. You pop the syringe and inject its contents into the port in the front of your suit.

It isn't long before you hear from Jimmy again. "Okay, boss, ran the tests. The concentration of oxygen is slightly higher out here, but that may be due to your PDA taking inaccurate measurements. It's hard to know for sure without a reliable control test, but results suggest the levels are about the same. I'd need more info, further spaced, to be able to triangulate the approximate direction. However, given the data I've collected from your comm logs thus far, it seems reasonable to conclude that whatever is introducing oxygen into the atmosphere may be situated to the northwest, seeing as that's the only quadrant you have yet to thoroughly explore." There's a pause. "Anything else, boss?"

"Hmm, let me see, oh yes I remember! Back in 6th grade I had to memorize and present a mono-log to my classmates in drama class. The speech was from the perspective of a student who was asking a janitor for assistance in removing a container of worms from his locker. And as you probably already know, I had to use a prop for this speech. Well I did. I took spaghetti noodles, boiled them and added food coloring to give them the fleshy color of real earth worms. I then put them in a glass jar and took them to school the following morning.

When it was my turn to present I put my jar of spaghetti on the table and after removing the lid I draped a small handful of the 'worms' over the jar. As I presented my several minute speech the class exclaimed multiple times as the 'worms' slowly fell out of the jar.

As soon as I was done with the mono-log and had returned to my seat several students wondered what I had used for my 'worms'. When I informed them that it was just spaghetti with food coloring they asked if they could eat it and I said “sure”. Before I knew it I had the entire class around me, eating the spaghetti that I had made.

It was at this time that I knew I could convince anyone to become a spaghetti consumer. And that's the story from my past that I believe you were referring to."

((A true story too crazy for me to have ever made up.))

You stand before the FSM's mighty throne, retelling the story of how you, in your 6th grade class, convinced an entire classroom to eat a jar of worms... or, rather, a jar of spaghetti you had called worms. For a moment, your confidence wavers as you wonder if the FSM will be pleased that you would call your spaghetti "worms"... but in the end, he seems pleased.

He bobs slightly in the air, as though nodding. Beams of light shine out from around the floating tendrils of His Noodles, and He booms in a great voice, "Indeed, my child. You know well of what I have spoken. My Son, Francis, requires your assistance. You can be a popular, driving person, when you attempt to be so." He pauses, and looks sternly at you; his giant meatballs of eyes reflect a feeling of disappointment as he continues, "Unfortunately, you have fallen short of the confidence you once held. You have lost The Way. You must be bold, my child. You must reach out and do what you know in your heart to be true, righteous, and just. Serve me, BFett. Serve the Holy Noodles to all of mankind at my Son's side. Help them overcome their differences and become one in The Great Bowl. This... is your true purpose."

"I know it well now, Father," you say. You suddenly realize that you're on one knee. You don't remember bowing low before His Noodliness, but it must have happened at some point. You begin to get to your feet, but the Flying Spaghetti Monster stops you.

"Nay, hold a moment," He commands. "I am not yet finished."

You pause, and get back to one knee.

"A memory holds you back, my child... something that happened before the Incident last year, where you stole 250,000 Galactic Credits." He pauses. "You must look within yourself. When was it that you lost your boldness, BFett? When did you cease to be as popular as you once were? That memory holds you back. It must be cleansed in the Holy Flow my Eternal Sauce, so that you may begin again, anew. You know the incident of which I speak."

A doubt - a glimmer of fear tugs at your heart as you begin to delve into your memories. The ground begins to grow dark; you suddenly realize His Noodliness no longer floats before you; you are alone at a table in a vast, cracked desert beneath a clouded sky. You grow short of breath. "It is not a memory I wish to think about, Your Noodliness," you whisper, swallowing anxiously.

The ground trembles as He speaks, calling out to you from the heavens. Shaking, bits of cracked earth collapse into the Great Void all about you. "I will give you the choice, young BFett," he shouts. "If you would serve Me, you must free yourself from these shackles that bind you. Only then can you truly help My Son."

All about you, the ground has collapsed; you remain on a single pillar of earth, stretching down into infinity... and then it, as well, falls.

~~~

You wake with a start, drawing in a sharp gasp of air. Your lungs fill as your eyes blink open; you hear your comrades' radio chatter in your ears, and realize that it was all... just a dream.

Or was it?

Kalah is nearby, with Dr. Cha0zz, Squidhead, and Andrew hovering over her. She's in pretty bad shape, but it looks like she's going to be fine.

((lucky roll. You woke up a bit earlier than I'd intended, but I still leave you with that final Question. What holds BFett back and keeps him from being the best he can be? What is there in his past that deters him?))

"I've been doing that this whole time, you fukc-head. Thanks for noticing."

Guard the party while they finish fixing each other up
If any aliens come through the doorway:
- Shoot them with my Lasgun
If I'm certain that no more aliens are coming through:
- Take a brief walk around the crucible, scanning the room for anything that stands out as being relevant to our mission objectives
- Return to my spot guarding the party

You stand there for a little while longer, looking out the entrance of the ancient doorway for any intruders... but you see nothing of interest. You don't hear anything, either. It seems that the "bugs" have decided to leave you alone... for now, at least.

When you're finally certain that there won't be more trouble from any enemies, you leave your post at the door and go back toward the "crucible" in the center of the room.

The crucible is a little metallic protrusion from the center of the floor, just under a meter in diameter. Cautiously, you walk around the rim of the circular set of steps that ring this little anomaly, looking for anything that stands out as being relevant to your current mission objectives: anything related to the Quantum Orb, or perhaps some information databanks of some kind. You see nothing of the sort, even after a very thorough search. While this room may have some technological knowledge that you can glean from it, it has nothing to do with your ultimate objective. You're quite certain of that now.

Quietly, you leave the set of steps and head back between the pillars toward the doorway, just as Dinosawer's squad arrives.

Cha0zz wrote:
Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound.

"Alright, I just hope we don't waste too much time doing this, since we're vulnerable when there's only one person on guard. Amenra, guard BFett and watch our backs while we do this."

Assist Chaozz with fixing up the wound, occasionally looking around to see if there's any enemies that are a threat to mewhen Chaozz no longer needs assistance
-Cautiously walk over to the pool in the middle of the room, picking up a pebble/small rock along the way
-Toss the rock into the pool and note what happens
-if the pool doesn't appear to be too dangerous to approach and take a sample of
--VERY cautiously get close to the pool, take out a jar and fill it with some pink goo, being careful not to touch it with any part of my body while doing so
-Examine one of the columns around the pool, looking for anything interesting/anomalous(e.g. glyphs)
-Photograph one of the columns with my PDA, as well as taking close-up photos of anything interesting on the column itself
-when at any point I start feeling severe effects from the pool, or something starts emerging from it
--Back offwhen I notice an enemy charging at me or a nearby ally
-Slash it with the electron sword(max 3 times)

Dr. Cha0zz calls you over, requesting assistance with cauterizing Kalah's wound. With his broken arm, he'll need all the help he can get, but you still feel uneasy, given that Ysavva is the only one on guard. "Watch our backs and guard BFett while we do this, Amenra," you tell her.

She glares at you with contempt and turns away. "I've been doing that this whole time, you fukc-head," she growls. "Thanks for noticing."

You decide there are more pressing matters at hand than dealing with that, and instead kneel next to Dr. Cha0zz by Kalah's unconscious form, getting ready to help cauterize the wound. She seems to be awake now. When she woke up, you have no idea, but without any painkillers, she's just going to have to hold on the best she can.

It's a slow and agonizing process, using a blowtorch to heat a piece of metal to sear a wound shoot by literally charring it shut - and with a wound as large as the bottom of Kalah's leg, it takes a good deal of time. To her immense credit, she grits her teeth and soldiers through her agony without a single cry. You and Dr. Cha0zz, together, manage to patch her wound completely closed. She won't be able to walk without some kind of modification - or a replacement of her leg - but for now, it'll do. You get to your feet and step away from the doctor and his patient, heading toward the rear of the little chamber, toward the stone steps leading down to the strange contrivance the team has nicknamed "the crucible".

It's a little metallic protrusion in the middle of the floor, ringed with stone steps, ringed themselves with six steel pillars of strange design. Their surface glitters and shimmers in a strange fashion you can't quite describe, mostly because it feels difficult to focus on it. Your interest, however, lies primarily with the crucible. Just under a meter across, it dominates the scene with a pale, shimmering light, almost like a pool of molten lava coated with a shimmering blue veil. Together, the colors blend and merge to become some kind of pale purple-pink.

You pick up a rock from the floor beside you, curious, and toss it in. The rock merely skitters across the surface and comes to a stop. It seems rather safe. Unfortunately, you don't think you'll be able to get a sample. This is fine; you don't think you really feel like getting closer anyway. There's a strong urging in the back of your mind to run, as fast as you can. It tugs at you in a familiar fashion, almost like the way you might think, "I feel like I'm forgetting something" when you're not able to recall what it is you've forgotten. It bothers you, and pains you to put it to the side, but with great difficulty, you manage... only by climbing back up the steps. When you've done this, the feeling fades... mostly.

Your attention shifts to the columns nearby, looking for anything interesting or anomalous, like glyphs. There do indeed seem to be glyphs on the column near the southward side - towards the direction of the entrance. Unfortunately, their patterns shift and turn beneath your gaze. It's impossible to read, let alone tell what you're looking at. You pull out your PDA and take a photograph of the strange, shifting symbols, but all the PDA's camera returns is a blur. It's definitely quantum. You remember hearing about this from the first mission.

You get the feeling that this is some kind of display; a physical display that has the ability to shift itself. The glyphs are arranged into neat rows and columns, with gaps in between them... almost like a readout of information. You're unable to guess what it could mean, and begin to feel confused when your PDA detects something else: enormous surges of energy pouring through the six columns. It detects electric currents up through the ceiling, through the floor, channeled down beneath the steps to the crucible itself - as though there was an enormous amount of power flowing from its mouth - or to. And beneath the entire surface of the floor, equal with the height of the liquid in the crucible, an enormous wall stretches to the very ends of the PDA's range to detect it. Your PDA's computers dutifully match the energy patterns with known entities and calmly chirps that it belongs to a Quantum shield... and then calculates the dimensions from the visible curve.

The results stagger you.

You stand above a spherical shield that, apparently, reaches around the entire moon.

It certainly solves the riddle of how the moon hasn't yet fallen apart, but all that power must come from somewhere.

Grimm wrote:Take stock of her surroundings
Try to figure out where she is and what the situation is
Examine the room for anything useful
If Doc tries to cauterize Kalah's wound
-Don't scream
-Grit teeth and bear it

Help Doc as much as possible with his one armed operation
Pray to the goddess that she doesn't die this mission
If Kalah has time for anything else
-Try to make something of her comatose dream, like who the spirit may be or why she helped, however angry she might have been

If enemies attack
-Grab Gauss Rife
-Fire a maximum of three times at nearest enemy

((Edited thanks to BFett, Hapchazzard and Cha0zz. ))

Feeling somewhat faint, you look around the little room where you are now. Part of it seems like some kind of natural cavern, especially towards the front, but farther into the back of the room the walls, floor and ceiling become more uniform and smooth, culminating in a strange circular depression in the floor - a ring of stone steps leading down into a pit surrounding some strange alien artifact. It's hard to see some of it - not only because your vision is blurred, but also because your helmet has tape over the front of it for some reason.

Dr. Cha0zz is calling to Taepilus and offering you some kind of terse apology as the two kneel down beside you. You realize they're going to cauterize your amputated foot... and whatever else is left of your leg. This is going to hurt like hell.

The next few minutes are by far some of the most excruciating ones you've ever experienced, as Dr. Cha0zz presses a red-hot bar of metal against the stump of your lower leg to seal the wound shut. You hear sizzling flesh for a moment and then your flesh burns almost worse than you could even imagine possible. With what mental faculties you have left, you make the stalwart decision to close your eyes, grit your teeth, and bear the pain without screaming. "Please, goddess," you hiss through clenched teeth, "Don't let me die on this mission."

After some indeterminate length of time, they finally stop. "She's done," Dr. Cha0zz says. Done? Your leg is positively on fire - your flesh screams for relief - it's all you can do not to spasm with the agony, though it certainly helps that you have hardly any strength. You've lost a lot of blood... You're not even sure you'd be able to stand. Even lifting your head makes you feel uncontrollably woozy.

A few moments more, and the rescue party - what's left of Squad 4 - rushes into the chamber, guns at the ready. Andrew Rice and Squidhead kneel by you - Andrew injecting some painkillers into the suit port on your right breast, and Squidhead hooks you up to some portable machine, pumping blood from a self-refrigerated pack into your veins. You feel your strength coming back, and the pain melting away. "Praise the goddess," you whisper in relief. It isn't lost on you that you only barely escaped death. You owe your platoonmates your life. They rushed to your rescue - squad 4 even at the risk of their own lives - and saved you even as Death waited at your door. You close your eyes, letting Squidhead and Andrew do their work.

Meanwhile, you let your thoughts drift back to your dream. There are parts here and there you can draw back to experiences in your life: the beaches of your homeworld, or the farms outside the cities. You distinctly remember the birds from your home as well, that your sleeping self painted into the skies... but the voice... well, that was different. It felt distinctly "real", and you don't recognize it at all.

She wasn't angry. That much you're soon sure of. She felt... sad. Disappointed. Resentful in a sense, but not at you. But more than anything else, there was an overwhelming feeling of hope, as though this woman had made hope her last bastion of defense... and an unmerited one at that. Was she the Goddess? You don't feel it likely, somehow... if it was really the goddess, she wouldn't have felt so desperate... or like she wanted help. She wouldn't have felt afraid, or sad, or alone... but this entity - this being - this... spirit - this is how she felt to you.

An image of a bluebird flutters through your mind, and you open your eyes.

Hema wrote:Turn towards the spiders on the ground,
inform the others that I'm firing,
and fire my MicFM at the selected spider with the intent of killing it.
Immediately afterwards, begin flying around to loose the swarms that are currently on me.
If at any time I manage to get away from the swarms,
-use my CASKET to see if the swarms might be communicating on another frequency somehow.
If Unit manages to gets the shields down and the swarms are still moving,
-attempt to draw the swarms away to point 'A' on the map.

You turn toward the spiders on the ground. "I'm firing at the spiders with my MicFM," you radio out. "I just need some time for it to spool up! Cover me!"

"On it!" Dak says. The red point of a laser flashes past some of the bugs ahead of you as he spirals and corkscrews through the tiny tunnel, trying to lose his pursuers. For your part, you focus on the calculations as the spiderlike creature steps forward with jerky, spasmatic motions that seem completely otherworldly. It walks past Triggerhappy's ship, headed for you; a few sparks fly as one of its legs easily skewer Trigger's hull, not by intent, but simply by virtue of the fact that it happened to be there. Clearly, this more weaponized swarm form has a very specific purpose: tearing apart tough targets in a short timeframe.

The bugs clambering onto your ship begin to drill little holes, all across the surface of your craft, looking almost like they're eating or burning away at the metal, which begins to glow a dull red in places. You can almost feel the heat it produces from inside your cockpit.

Your calculations aren't done yet. "Just a few more seconds! Keep them off me!" you shout. The spider stomps closer... closer... one second at a time. Only at this range, less than half a dozen meters, can you appreciate how alien it truly is. It's no creature. It's a machine - a machine with a very, very singular mentality: rip and tear. There is no main body. There are no eyes. It's simply an array of legs connecting at a single point, composed of thousands of little insect-like machine-creatures.

Warning sirens sound in your cockpit. Only seconds have passed since you started the calculations, but it's felt like minutes - and lights flash on the screens about you, warning that your life support is failing. It is indeed starting to feel a little warm.

You get the green light. "CALCULATIONS COMPLETE" flashes onto the primary screen, and you hit the trigger.

The spider practically melts before you, clumps buzzing, crackling with static and bursting as they overheat. The mechanical beast staggers for a moment, and then collapses into chunks and separate parts, the little bugs its composed of moving faintly and erratically. You've killed it. But there's another, headed toward Triggerhappy's cockpit, and the swarms are eating through your hull.

Quickly, you begin a series of fast maneuvers to lose the little hitchhikers on the outside of your CASKET, but it does little good; they're going to get to something important soon, and it'll all be over unless you can escape or shut them off somehow.

Just then, Unit 4965 speaks up with some important news: "We might be able to shut off these rocks if you get someone in here to hack them," he proclaims.

Try to find the switch that will disable the defenses. Fiddle around with the control panel. Check in with the team after every button push.

Flip the off-switch.

Call Hema, tell him that I've found what looks to be a control panel, and to get into contact with someone capable of hacking into things.
((Any situation that you need to rely on Unit 4965, that doesn't involve construction and medical emergencies, is a situation that you've already lost.))

Getting out of your CASKET, you grab your repair kit and start doing your best to hook the CASKET's power source to the little control panel you've found. It's a tricky job, without a doubt - your power source isn't even designed to connect to anything of Quantum make, and you have to make sure the voltage and current is just right. There's more to it than just that, of course, but... it's not going to be easy.

You make it easy anyway. You're just that good.

There's a lot of little buttons on the panel. It's not the regular Quantum shifty-bitey garbage - it's something cheaper and less Quantum-ey. This is probably just a maintenance panel, potentially designed such to help turn off the shields in case they decide to get too bitey themselves. Not sure what else to do, you press a few buttons and then check up on your team. "So, how are you guys doing?"

"WE'RE DYING!" come various screams. "WE. ARE GOING. TO DIE."

You shrug. Must not have been the right buttons. You press a few more. "Any better now?"

"NO!" they shout back.

Thinking, you pause for a moment. Then you venture, "...any worse, though?"

"WHAT?!"

Well, that certainly doesn't help things. You press the rest of the buttons sequentially... and then at random. Nobody mentions anything happening... at least, at first. You're shocked and surprised when the debris pile over to your left disappears for a moment... and then wavers back into existence. What? A physical hologram? Really? You'd thought better of these guys. "Hema, I found what looks like some kind of control panel," you say. "We might be able to ..." You pause, trying to figure out how to word it believably. Nothing comes to mind, so you decide to just say it and get it over with. "We might be able to shut off these rocks if you get someone in here to hack them." It sounds just as bizarre as you thought it would.

Hopefully the Quantums don't have your habit of installing redundancies.

Just then, you notice movement over to your left - some kind of shimmering reflection beneath the glare of your headlights. It flickers and spasms erratically, almost as if a mass of tiny metallic objects were headed in your direction...

Hema wrote:"Dak, see if you can lose the swarms on you. I know you don't have much room to maneuver, just do what you can. If you get a good shot with your electrolaser, I want you to take it."

"I'm gonna try. These things are persistent."

Attempt to lose the swarms on me by flying(carefully if I can) and maneuvering around any.
Keep away from the walls of death
If I can get a swarm in clear sight:
-FIre one shot with the electrolaser

If swarms try to hit me or more try to land on my ship:
-Attempt to dodge

If Trigger tries blowing up his ship:
-Attempt to get as far away as possible without going towards the walls of death
-Call him a useless P.O.S. and an idiot
-Call his mother a safety switch and his father a defective firing pin(kidding)

You begin trying to lose the swarms by carefully maneuvering in the tight space you have, making tight turns and abrupt stops. The bugs follow, clicking and clattering against your hull every time you slow down, scraping against it when you spin or come to an abrupt halt. This kind of flying is risky - it's the sort of thing you might see in a stunt show, and you don't exactly have much experience with it. You seem to be doing all right, though - especially when you land a lucky shot with your electrolaser and manage to electrocute a swarm that was just about to attack Hema. Sparks jump between the entire mass in an instant, illuminating it with an eerie glow that's gone again in an eye blink. The swarm falls to the ground. Meanwhile, Hema is doing well with his end of the fight, melt-toasting one of the spider-walker-things that was coming towards him... but overall, your defense is starting to fail. Servius has left his post at the rubble pile to try to lose some of the swarms on him, Hema's already overrun, and Triggerhappy is absolutely inundated with the things.

"These things are persistent," you mutter.

You're not going to manage to keep them off for much longer, no matter what you do. Your only hope is 4965, who just then speaks up with an announcement. "I think," he says calmly, "that we might be able to shut off these rocks, if you get someone in here to hack them." He pauses, and it sinks in: If 4965 is your only hope, you're boned, dude. Totally boned.

"Unit, how are you over zere? Any progress vith turning off ze svarm? Vi are being eaten alive over here... it's becoming a light bozer. Zat, and my overestimation of ze integrity of zis trash bin is troubling."

Shift my casket slightly for aim and fire a Railgun slug into the shield closing in on us.

Completely shut down my Casket.
Grab my pistol.
Shoot or swat any of the swarm that get inside my cockpit ( no more than 4 shots ) without breaking my canopy further.
Try to figure out a way out of this situation. (( GK roll? Not sure. ))
Wait till the swarm dies or kills us all.

While I wait,
- Read the CASKET manual.
- Look at what is in all the compartments.
- Set the Rubber Duck on my dashboard.
- When I finish the manual,
-- Listen to the other squads comms for any valuable information.

If the swarm dies.
- Get out of my CASKET.
- Assess damage.
- Call Unit over if possible for repairs.

If the swarm is, once again, certain to kill me,
- If all my squad members are out of my blast range and/or dead,
-- Self destruct CASKET.

You try to shift your CASKET slightly to aim at the shield closing in on you, and fire a railgun slug at it. It doesn't do a thing.

"Vell, I tink dis is it," you say. You shut down your CASKET completely, as the swarm continues to munch away at the outside of your ship. Meanwhile, you grab the CASKET manual and start to flip through it. There's not much you can find that's actually interesting. Most of it's just technical explanations and specifications... but there is something in there about a rubber duck. You follow the instructions in the manual to find it. There's a lengthy chain of directions you have to take note of and complete, and while it's confusing at times, every step brings you closer to your goal. Eventually, you reach the last step: opening a little compartment that's been revealed from a drawer under your chair... and the little rubber duck is right there. You pull it out and wedge it into a corner of the control panel to keep it from falling.

The swarms are getting closer. They've given up on eating the cockpit canopy; it seems to be composed of some material they don't particularly like eating. You can hear them behind you, though, in the hollows of the ship. They're coming up from behind your chair... and they'll probably be on you any second.

Your ship is dead. The amount of work it would take to repair it at this point is almost astronomical. You're certainly not going to be able to use it to escape. Your only option, therefore, is to throw open the canopy and hope the swarms don't follow you... or that you can fight them off.

((I did a gen knowledge roll for the duck, you got lucky. rolled a 4; with a +1, that's 5 and certainly enough to find the duck. On the plus side, you found the legendary rubber duck. On the downside, your squad is dying and you're hunting for rubber ducks. I personally think that's a nice tradeoff though.))

A New Challenger wrote:"Alea iacta eat!"Continue blocking the swarms from following Unit
IF they start to break through the hull
-Swat them away and take evasive action
-Lure some toward the closing shields, being careful not to get caught
IF Trigger starts to go supernova
-Try and make the same maneuver Unit did and escape

"Alea iacta eat!" you yell, swatting away part of a swarm trying to pass you with a quick burst of your RCS thrusters. The little bugs are landing on your hull more thickly now - you're practically crawling with the things, and they're piling up in places... but you notice a few of them actually managing to make holes - especially off to your left. A few of them crawl into a small puncture they've created; you watch them disappear. This seems to attract the attention of the others nearby, which lift off and land near the same area, starting to follow them in.

You're not going to be able to keep this up much longer.

With a burst of speed and an abrupt spin, you manage to shake most of the bugs off the surface, and then, with a burst of speed, start toward the closing shields. They're closing more rapidly now - you've seen at least two close so far - so you have high hopes of being able to trap some of the swarms on the other side. With a quick burst of speed, you barrel past Dak, trying to lose bugs of his own, and draw some of his with you. Then, with a tight sideways twist, you put on full underside thrusters to slow yourself, just barely grazing where you think the next shield will show. You throw it in reverse, flipping levers, hitting knobs and yank the throttle to max as you rocket back and away, counting on the swarms to swing around behind to try to keep up - and with a loud hum, the next force field flashes into existence, trapping a huge number of bugs behind it. It's not all of them, but it's enough to keep you and your squadmates alive for just a little longer.

Hopefully Unit can figure out the shield controls... assuming that's what they are.

They don't seem to be. "I think," he proclaims, "that we should be able to shut off these rocks, if we could just get someone in here to hack them."

You're not even sure what to make of that statement.

((rolled maneuverability for this move. you got a 5 + 1, which is an epic success))

outlander4 wrote:"Fawkes, I'd rather you get on with the objective. The time is running short, and this place sucks."

"Blake, I know you can hear me. Fight it, god damn it. FIGHT IT! I don't want to use Tesla Arc on you, and I don't want our folks to divert from the objective!"

Take a peek at the column.
See if I can identify a week spot/power lines.
Ponder at what the Hell this thing really is and what's it purpose.

Is it an area control/access denial weapon? Why is it working on such a small area?

Shoot an explosive bolt at the column, aiming the weak spot.

outlander4 wrote:Hidden actions for this turn, to add to the actions already written in the thread - basically, re-iterating the previous turn

IF Blake approaches and is clearly hostile:
- fire flare bolt in an ark so that it sticks to his cockpit's glass right in front of his face;
- repeat!
- change position by getting into the shadow of some rock;
IF Francis approaches and is clearly hostile:
- fire a flare bolt, aiming at the ground in front of him;
- laugh;
- approach him
- and hit him in the head with the flat side of my katana's blade;
Get back to my ship and re-enter the cockpit.

"Blake, I know you can hear me," you call out over the comms. Then you order, "Fight it, goddamnit! FIGHT IT! I don't want to use the Tesla Arc on you, and I don't want our folks to divert from the objective!"

You hear his voice - hoarse and ragged - over the comms. "FOREIGNER!" he shouts out. "This is me - this is Blake! I'm trying! It's -" His voice stops short. You can only imagine why. Seconds later, his CASKET turns and zooms away - both from you, and the pillar.

Huh. That was easier than you expected. You peek out from behind the rock a little farther and see Francis still standing on the ground near the pillar, ambling around aimlessly. You laugh at him, load an explosive bolt into your crossbow, and fire.

At the pillar. Not at Francis.

It doesn't matter anyway, though. The bolt hits some kind of shield and explodes, just a dozen meters away from the pillar itself. You sigh and walk back to your ship, climbing up and entering the cockpit.

F4wk35 wrote:"Damn...your thoughts sound reasonably accurate, William. But this doesn't change the fact that we should come up with something fast...Actually...damn! I have a rough idea...but for this we'd need your CASKET's, it's also risky...but I can't really think of something else considering our Equipment. *Murmuring to myself* Need to be fast, flying low...what about the fliers...static? Possible...after that...He's still on Emergency power...how long does that last? 20 Minutes or so if I remember correctly...need a distraction...can't enter, too much risk...possible influences? Fliers...mind controlled hostiles...blake's weaponry, hacking...not much time...enemies will come as soon as we attack the spire...possible measures against that...not that I can think of something right now...range of the Spire...perhaps 400m judging from the map...particle gun won't be very effective on that distance.... Commander! Do you remember the VR Combat session we had before the Sedirmar-Mission when you got hacked?"

"SCAMPS? You don't have something unimportant flying around in orbit, do you? ...But even if you had something up there...you wouldn't drop it on the spire here, i guess..."

F4wk35 wrote:"Ok, we should do something about this spire now. Nequeba, William, I will fly back to your CASKET's now. We'll then move back to the spire where the Commander and I will fly a distraction while you two get directly to the tower and bash it however you see fit...some further coordination will happen once we get you to your CASKET's"

*Hold up my PDA so my passengers can see it clearly, tapping on it*

[On PDA, sent only to Foreigner, Nequeba and Quackshot: Ok, listen up! Whatever we say over the comms will reach Blake...and whatever is in his head right now will get it too. So either play along with them or say nothing, as long as we keep the spoken things somewhat reasonable. As for the Situation at hand, I will get you two to your CASKET's as said, even if it's risky...from there on we'll try something more complicated...as Nequeba is best suited for handling the Spire itself, we'll need to come up with some kind of distraction to allow her to get to it in the first place. For this we should split up to divert Blake's attention as he can't focus on all of us at once if we do so. Nequeba and William will fly in a wide, clockwise circle around the spire while the Commander and I fly counterclockwise. During this phase I'll set up a mock-hack to distract Blake. William, once you circled far enough, you should seek cover, preferably when Blake's not watching. Keep out of his sight, perhaps we can confuse him a bit. Nequeba should then fly to the Spire, trying to utilize cover as much as possible, once near enough, try to damage it with your pincers or your infantry-equipment...I know, a ship-mounted weapon would be more useful for this task...but we'll have to work with what we have right now. Once you're close enough you could also try a hypersonic-hack on either Blake or the Spire...try to shut down one of them if you want. If hopefully all goes well we can then regroup and hack this thing to pieces.

Ah right, before I forget it...Nequeba, while we fly back to your CASKET's...there's a high risk that those fliers will target us...as soon as the dust starts growing thicker I want you to use your Lightning-amp to create some kind of static field around us. The dust seems to be some kind of battery or coordinator for those things...perhaps we can cripple their coordination like that. William, stay sharp, if your intuition tells you that something is incoming...tell us immediately, I'll try to evade then. Serious Questions on PDA please!]

"Hold on tight, I'll try to get this way behind us fast!"

Fly back to Nequeba's and William's CASKET's as fast as possible
Fly at a max altitude of 30meters above ground
Fly past the mind-control spire with a distance of at least 600m
When in range, use a normal ship hack to try and corrupt Blake's mobility systems to degrade his aim.
Don't hack him if he managed to shake of the mind-control
In that case, don't hack anything.
Once arrived at the CASKET's, land next to them.
When my passengers got off
-Fly to a position at the lower right corner of E8.
Use intuition to try to predict possible attack and evade them in this knowledge
If William tells me of an incoming threat
-Use his intuition to try to evade the threat
If hit on the way
-Drop to 15m and fly onward
-If hit again
--Land and drive onward unless when it would be over the vines. in that case fly on!

With everyone situated, you lift off and begin flying as fast as you can toward the location of Quackshot's and Nequeba's CASKETs, back along the shield bubble to your left. Almost immediately, a dense cloud sweeps up from the canyon to the east, enveloping your little craft. You can hardly see a thing - even the ground, just thirty meters below. You're almost surprised at how quickly they were able to stir up the storm.

"Are you analyzing it, Nequeba?" you ask. Nequeba confirms that she is indeed attempting to.

Quackshot speaks up. "Fawkes, I think we're going to see some hostiles soon..."

You rather feel the same.

Then Quackshot shouts, "FAWKES! WE HAVE INCOMING!"

Before you can do anything at all, a large, dark shape crashes into the bow of your ship; alarms begin flashing inside your cockpit and you see the coolant level indicators drop rapidly. In accordance with your plans, you lower your ship to about 15 meters from the ground... just before something else slams into your hull just to the right of you, setting your ship into a slow tumble. As quickly as you can, you recover and land on the nearest ridge.

"Is everyone all right?" you ask worriedly. You feel somewhat relieved when William and Nequeba's voices answer you. They sound undeniably shaken, but otherwise uninjured. You decide that maybe flying top speed wasn't the best idea... especially right next to the enemy's stronghold. They seem to be much more capable of acting near it than farther away.

You drive onwards over the terrain, and the dust above you begins to clear... somewhat. The sky creatures, while probably capable of attacking you on the ground, don't really seem interested in doing so. Perhaps they only consider the sky their territory.

((You are very lucky neither you nor anyone else died this turn. Very lucky. The skies aren't yours, remember.))

Black--Snow wrote:This is a continuation of the actions in the mission thread
When I'm aimed/shot at or a hack is attempted
- Take cover
- Respond fire/hack if I haven't already (No multi)

Attempt to reroute power to best utilise hacking systems
Stay defensive
Move into a position where I am able to take cover if necessary
Hack threats to me or the spire (If a hack is a success, do not perform a second on the same target. Max 2 hacks)
fire my ship weapons at threats to me or the spire (We've discussed no multi-roll for this statement. :V)

Whatever's controlling you, it isn't a machine. You get the sense that it's alive. While it may not be sentient, it seems like it may have been... at some point in the distant past. Now it's nothing but animalistic, obsessed with a desire to protect itself and its planet, with no higher reasoning than "pain is bad". There's no way you can communicate this to Foreigner, though... not unless you can break free.

You focus. You've lightly studied psychological conditioning, the Inner Self, the cleansing of the mind, all that metaphysical mumbo jumbo. You did it many years ago, more out of curiosity than a desire to better yourself. While you don't remember much, you pray that it might be enough.

You imagine closing your eyes, going deep within yourself, and reconnecting your mind to the rest of your body.

You struggle against the force that threatens to overwhelm you every second you delay. "FOREIGNER!" you shout out. "This is me - this is Blake! I'm trying! It's..." You stop; it's simply not worth the effort. Every motion is a battle of its own as you forcibly pit yourself against the howling voices in your mind, every inch you move your muscles a victory in itself. You grab hold of the controls with a stilted, jerky motion, and force your CASKET's throttle to the maximum, rocketing away from the alien pillar - and away from Foreigner - as fast as you can.

And the force that holds you tightens its grip. You clench your fingertips to the arms of your seat, all but screaming as you fight for the right to control your own body. You begin to lose control; "they" retake your arms, which begin to try to forcibly move against the grip of your fingers back to the controls, but you hold tight. Your knuckles whiten and you clench your teeth, giving it everything you have.

"I will not... succumb!" you shout. "I WILL NOT!" Every defiant word takes more effort than you'd ever imagined possible; it's like being in a bad dream where you can't move the way you want.

One inch at a time, you lose ground... until the the enemy completely regains control. Your fingers unclench themselves, your hand lifts away from the arm of the seat, and you slow the throttle, putting on reverse thrusters to bring yourself to a halt.

According to the maps, you've traveled a kilometer and a half - well outside Foreigner's range. It should be outside the pillar's range too, should it not? ...or perhaps it only needs that range to make first contact. Perhaps the pillar is used to actively control everything within a certain radius... The vines, the bugs, the fliers, everything... it would explain a lot. But who is controlling it, and from where?

You wish you had someone in the squad more experienced with psionics and mind control.

scamps wrote:"Yeah. I do it on rare occasions, usually when a mission is going to fail otherwise, or some such shit. Wait, can you control it? Hmm... depends on how good of a hacker you are."

"SCAMPS: Could you take control of Blake's CASKET and fly it as fast as possible away from the spire he's currently near. He seems to be mind controlled by it at the moment and it would be great if he were away from it."
Stay in on Fawkes CASKET until he gets back to my CASKET
Grab on to the tether to stay attached to Fawkes CASKET if at all possible.
While on the way try to understand what the message in the purple thing is (use intuition i guess) ((Is it possible for me to actually work this out?))Use my PDA to analyze the dust in the atmosphere while I'm in the air

Once we're at my CASKET get out of Fawkes' and into mine
Follow Fawkes to his position away from the spire.

Use intuition to try to predict possible attack and evade them in this knowledge
If William tells me of an incoming threat
-Use his intuition to try to evade the threat
If hit on the way
-Drop to 15m and fly onward

If the dust decreases visibility to less than 100 meters
-Fire my electric amp into the dust away from the CASKET (Fawkes, I see this ending badly by the way)

((Edited to account for flying visibility))

"SCAMPS?" you ask, following up on Quackshot's question, "could you take control of Blake's CASKET and fly it away from the spire he's near as fast as possible? It seems to be controlling his mind."

"Are you kidding? He's in the middle of some kind of energy field, and I can barely establish radio contact. There's no way I could manage that level of control right now. If I could, I'd disable comms anyway to keep people like you from annoying me with pointless questions. I'll see what I can do about your ships but that's the most I can do for you right now. And don't fukcing take this for granted, either, shitwad. Not helping save your asses again this mission. Unprofessional shit."

You take the hint and shut up... for now. Being in charge doesn't give him the right to be an asshole, after all.

Fawkes lifts off the ground, and you hold on tight to make sure you don't fall as he begins the long journey to the southeast... but hardly ten seconds have passed before the sky grows dark, blotted out by a thick dust storm arising from the canyon to your left. Holding on tightly to his CASKET with one hand, you pull out your PDA.

"Are you analyzing it, Nequeba?" Fawkes asks.

You begin pressing the buttons to try to bring up the atmospheric analyzer. "I'm trying to," you assure him. "I don't really know my way around this thing." The PDA's control systems do indeed seem unnecessarily obtuse, but you manage to figure it out anyway with a little common sense and intuition. In fact, you're just about to get a decent sample when Quackshot yells something in your ear. You weren't listening, and turn toward him, slightly irritated. "What did you say?" you ask - but then stop short as you see an enormous shadow fall towards you, only instants before colliding with the front of Fawkes' CASKET. The impact tosses you about like a rag doll, barely able to hold on to the side of Fawkes' CASKET. Fawkes himself quickly regains control of his craft and drops to a mere 15 meters from the ground, continuing to fly on at full throttle. The decreased potential fall distance hardly helps you feel any better. Fifteen meters is still more than enough to kill you if you fall, and there are still those enormous beasts swarming around you, almost like barbed jellyfish, or perhaps manta rays... it's not quite like any creature you've ever seen, and doesn't appear to be entirely organic.

Of course, you get an excellent opportunity to examine another specimen up close when it crashes into the far side of Fawkes' CASKET, sending it into a tumble. You shout in surprise, but maintain your cool, hooking your arms under the railing on the side of his ship to try to keep from falling off. Everything quickly starts to go dark from the g-forces; you're hardly able to hold on, especially with Quackshot trying to hold onto your midsection... when did that start, anyway?

Before long, fortunately, Fawkes manages to pull out of the spin, level out, and land. Quackshot releases you and goes back to his spot with a glare. "You could've helped," he mutters. "I almost fell."

You're not sure what to say to this, and simply answer Fawkes' question of whether you're all right: "We're okay, Fawkes," you assure him, though your voice sounds shaky in your ears. "We're all right."

As Fawkes begins to drive his CASKET over the rocky surface of the plateau, you realize that your PDA is missing. You assume you must've dropped it at some point during the attack... which has thankfully stopped. You doubt there's much hope of finding it again.

((You got a decent charisma roll for SCAMPS. Be aware that he will not feel inclined to help very frequently.))

IronDuke wrote:"Hey SCAMPS, can a CASKET be remotely controlled from another?"

((Cheeky rainbow \o/))

IronDuke wrote:On the PDA: "I want to point out that Blake is only slightly worse at Psi than Nequeba. I don't know that sending her in would work. I do observe that Blake, despite being a great hacker, just failed two hacking attempts on Foreigner. I think Nequeba could successfully hack Blake and force him to destroy the spire."On the way to the CASKETs, keep "intuiting" to try to detect threats, and use the Mk 1 Eyeball as well. Basically keep on a hard lookout.
Inform Fawkes of any threats.
If there is a threat and I have a good shot
-Shoot it with the lasgun, max 3 times.

Once Fawkes arrives at the CASKETs, hop off.
Take the tether with me; I kinda like it.
Get into my CASKET.
Take off and fly to 600 meters of the spire/tower thingy, avoiding the vines.
Stay behind cover once I arrive.

((Fawkes, I think you should add in to avoid the plants and actions after reaching the CASKETS.))
((Suppose that we'll carry out Fawkes's grand plan on the next turn? This is a lot to do at once. I think we should just all group up 600 meters from the spire for the moment. Too many things can interfere just now.))

Fawkes lifts off the ground and you hold tight to make sure you don't fall. He begins the long journey towards the southeast... but hardly more than ten seconds pass before the sky grows dark, blotted out by a thick dust storm rising from the canyon on your left. You keep a hard lookout for any threats... but your intuition tells you they can't be far away. "Fawkes, I think we're going to see some hostiles soon," you warn him. He doesn't really seem to pay attention.

You continue watching, as Fawkes flies on and Nequeba pokes at her PDA... and you see something in the distance - a dark, shadowed form, drawing ever closer. You start shouting. "FAWKES! WE HAVE INCOMING! NEQUEBA, HOLD TIGHT!" you order, but she doesn't seem to be listening either.

"What did you say?" she asks in slight annoyance - and that's when it hits. With an ear-shattering smash, Fawkes' CASKET tips to the side as he struggles to correct his course. You nearly fall; your damaged wrists twists away as you try to keep hold of the hull; although it's numb and you can't feel a thing, there's absolutely no doubt in your mind that Fawkes' treatment did nothing but stop the pain. Your wrist is broken. Fortunately, you don't fall - you're able to keep hold with only one hand, even though it's a very close call. Your fingers slip, but you hold on tight. It pays to be strong sometimes... even just strong fingers.

Fawkes doesn't really slow. The most he does is lower his ship closer to the ground and fly on at full throttle, just as before. If these creatures are trying to send a message, clearly they're not getting their point across. You see another close in - a huge, barbed shape like some kind of pufferfish-dragonfly-monster - and it rams Fawkes' ship on the far side of the cockpit.

Your world spins. Your wrist is the first thing to go, naturally, and your fingers start to slip. You're going to fall. "Nequeba! HELP!" you shout; but she doesn't hear you. What's this with nobody hearing you today? You take matters into your own hands with a near-superhuman lunge in Nequeba's general direction, throwing your arm around her waist as you wedge your feet under the railing to keep yourself from falling. The spinning, tumbling motion of Fawkes' craft continues for a moment, and then slows as he regains control, righting himself and correcting his flight path only a few meters from the rock below. You loosen your grip on Nequeba's body and shift back to your previous position. She looks at you in confusion. "You could've helped," you mutter crossly. "I almost fell." If you had, you certainly would've died. You're none too happy with her not even thinking about saving you. Sure, she probably didn't even know you were going to get hit before Fawkes took off, but still. You're in a bad mood.

Fawkes lands his craft and soon begins to traverse the last portion of the plateau. You settle back and massage your wrist, trying to get it to look okay again. You're definitely going to need to get it set back on the Tartarus. At least you can't feel it, though. Tartarus painkillers really do their job right.

Dinosawer wrote:I wait for Andrew to get in his CASKET and for Squidhead to do his thing.
Then I travel towards the position of squad 1, and stop at the edge of the cliff.
If there's still time this turn for a descent:
-I use my FutureVision™ to see what will happen
-And tell everyone what attacks will happen and from where

Then I fly down, sticking close to the canyon wall.

When I see enemies or know they're there (from the vision)
-I fire at one with my electrolaser
-And at one with a triple quantum shot (chance of hitting more than one perhaps )

As soon as I'm at the bottom, I'll land and grab my stuff,
discouple Squid's repair kit,
get out of my ship,
grab the kit,
and run over to cover near the door,
and drop it off there.

When attacked:
-Analyse the enemies with the TARGET
-Attack as many enemies as practical (up to 4) with a plasma streamer blast (time to see the TARGET Helmet in action )
-Rocket kick one of them
-Slash the nearest with my electron sword
-Slash one with my electron sword
-And get back into cover.

"Thanks for the ride, Dino," Andrew says, hopping off your ship. "Let's go save Squad 1's asses!" You wait for him to get into his CASKET and start it up before you take off, leading everyone over to the edge of the ridge. Along the way, nothing attacks you - which is extremely fortunate, without a doubt.

When you finally reach the cliff, you bring everyone to a halt. "Hold here," you order. "Let me check for danger."

You close your eyes and let yourself sink into a vision of the future.

"Let's go!" you hear yourself say. Squidhead starts "Ride of the Valkyries" playing over the comms, and together, you and your squad lift off and start down the cliff - a staggering kilomter-high drop. You soon make it to the bottom, though, without encountering anything. You feel disappointed. You'd almost hoped you'd get attacked. That was, after all, the reason you looked into the future.

"Let's go!" you say. Together, you and your squad lift off and start down the cliff - a staggering kilometer-high drop. Far in the distance, you see dark shapes moving about in a dust cloud - possibly some of the same things that fought Dr. Cha0zz - but they seem disinterested, instead moving as a group to the west, away from you. You decide not to alert your squad. They don't seem to be any real danger. And, they aren't: you make it to the bottom without encountering any real hostiles. You see shapes skittering about on the ground a kilometer or so to the west, but they aren't quite near enough to worry about either.

As soon as you're at the bottom, you land your CASKET, grab your stuff, and get out, decoupling Squidhead's repair kit on the way. After a quick trip to the back of your ship to retrieve his kit, you head toward the entrance of the cave, dragging it along behind you. Squidhead soon joins you after firing a few warning shots out of his shield (which he's set up to completely cover the entrance to the cave). Then he heads inside with Andrew, intending to fix Squad 1's wounded.

You made it. You're surprised it wasn't more difficult, but it seems you had some kind of distraction... probably one of the other squads.

Cornflakes_91 wrote:park near dino's ship"Payback! Come out of that container for a second! I want to take a look at your damages!"Fix Payback with the repair kitStuff payback back into the containermount repair kit on dinos ship againfly with the others to the edge of the cliffif dino springs to action (as in flying down and shooting stuff)-put up "ride of the valkyries" over the com system (and over any external speakers if caskets happen to have such things)-Fly down towards squad 2-cover dino if necessary-fire a triple quantum shot towards a large blob of enemies near squad 1's cave entry-land at the cave entry-get payback out of the container-if possible ((aka if tal allows)), make a shield quarter-sphere around the cave entry and my ship. that the cave is separated from the outside but the way between my ship and the cave is clear. let people through if necessary-take my infantry stuff and get out of the ship-fire an LCD - lasgun combo at ballheap-bugs of opportunity (inside the shot limit of course)-Fix most hurt person inside the cave/shield

You park near Dinosawer's ship and get out, opening the cargo pod on your ship. "Payback! Get out of that container for a second!" you order. "I want to take a look at your damages."

With your repair kit at your side, you look Payback-13 over. He's been shot in the back with something that looks a lot like the Quantum Glass from the first mission you were on - it's punctured his back and lodged in some of his parts - a small oil reservoir, from the looks of it. You begin picking out shards of crystal and tossing them to the ground, and after that's done, seal his reservoir and chassis with some of the materials in your kit. The whole process takes hardly a minute; you're good at what you do. "Now get back in the container," you order, giving him a firm shove with a tentacle before you start dragging your repair kit back to Dino's CASKET.

~~~

It isn't long before your group is perched upon the clifftop above Dr. Cha0zz's squad. Dinosawer has brought everyone to a halt while he does his FutureVision thing. You have your tentacles poised to start a song playing the second he gives the go-ahead.

He soon does. "Let's go, everybody," he calls out, starting up, over, and down the face of the cliff, toward the ground a kilometer below. You hit the button to start "Ride of the Valkyries" going, and listen, pleased, as it booms out over the comms of everyone nearby.

The descent is perfect. Nothing attacks either you, or anyone in your squad. You feel rather lucky about it, and are soon landing your CASKET on the ground at the entrance of the cave, next to Dino's and the others'. Before you get out, though, you fiddle around with the controls you've mapped to your new shield generator, and discover ((general knowledge)) that it's possible to switch shields to full aft, with none on the front side of your ship. Whether this actually increases their strength or not, you're not sure, but it stands to reason that it would. You use this newfound ability to put a shield bubble over the mouth of the cave, to keep any enemies out. There seem to be a few of the things about a kilometer or so out to the west - but they keep their distance. Maybe Squad 1 taught them a lesson they won't soon forget.

Grabbing your gear, you open the canopy and climb out of your CASKET, heading into the cave. It's a rough thing, but shows signs of civilization - metal paneling embedded in the walls, for instance. The metal doorway beyond a twist in the tunnel confirms this: it's definitely of Quantum make. You'd recognize it anywhere. Ysavva stands just beyond the door, and gives a nod to you and Andrew.

Kalah is lying on the floor a little ways in. You head over to her quickly and start checking her out. She's not in good shape. Dr. Cha0zz and Taepilus have managed to patch her foot up by cauterizing the wound, which definitely stopped her from bleeding out - there's a lot of blood pooled on the floor (and smeared on the legs of Dr. Cha0zz's suit). Your task, naturally, will be to help get some blood back into her. To that end, you get a transfusor out of your advanced medical kit, along with two blood packs. You hook the little device up to pump blood from the self-cooled packs into the medical port of Kalah's suit, and start it up. It dutifully begins pumping blood into her system, with you carefully monitoring the display to check pressure and vitals.

She's going to be fine. It's very lucky you arrived in time, though. If you hadn't... well, she might not have made it.

cuisinart8 wrote:"Thanks for the ride, Dino. Let's go save Squad 1's asses!
And Doc, I hear you're injured. I have some painkillers if you want them."

Get in my CASKET
Follow Dino to the cave
If we run into the pebble-monster-thing or Dino finds an enemy:
-Fire once at it with my electrolaser, avoiding friendlies
-If it is destroyed or we don't run into it:
-Land the CASKET and get out
-Move into the cave with the squad
-Give Doc painkillers first, then give Kalah some as well.
-If an enemy appears while we're in the cave:
--Take cover
--Shoot it a maximum of three times with my lasgun.

"Don't worry you two, strong drugs are on the way!"

You hop down from Dinosawer's ship and jog over to your CASKET. Nothing has changed about it since you left it here at the edge of the Plain of Eternal Spikes. It's a fact you find somewhat reassuring: it means there aren't any enemies in the immediate vicinity. Unfortunately, you know you'll soon be heading straight into the heart of the hornet's nest, and there's not much you can do about it. You need to help Squidhead save Kalah, and Dr. Cha0zz needs some aid as well.

After you strap yourself into your cockpit, you do the pre-flight check and then take off, following Dinosawer and the others forward to the edge of the cliff.

"Hold here," Dinosawer says. "Let me check for danger." You slow your CASKET down to a stop. It isn't long before he gives the all-clear signal, and your team starts down over the edge of the cliff, flying to the bottom of the kilometer-deep chasm.

The flight is completely uneventful, apart from Squidhead playing "Ride of the Valkyries" over the comm systems. Nothing attacks you or anyone in your squad, and it isn't long before you've reached the bottom of the gorge. You land your CASKET next to Dino and Squidhead's, and get out, heading into the cave.

Some ways in, there's an open doorway with a metal frame; you pass through and look around. Kalah is lying on the floor with Dr. Cha0zz standing close to her, Ysavva is standing watch just inside. Taepilus is wandering around, looking at a set of columns near the back of the little cavern that ring a set of downwards stairs. It all looks ancient and rather alien.

"Here, Doc," you say, tossing Dr. Cha0zz one of your painkillers, and then you follow Squidhead over to Kalah Grimm. She's awake, but mostly immobile - she seems kind of out of it, probably from the loss of blood. You pop the cap on your second painkiller syringe and inject it into one of the rubbery medical ports on her chest. Meanwhile, Squidhead is getting to work on a blood transfusion.

Apart from her foot, which looks... frankly, horrendous... it looks like she's gonna be all right.

BMRX wrote:-Get out of container and allow cornflakes to repair damages
-Get back into container
-Wait until we arrive at our location
-Get out of container and assist in any combat

"Payback-13," SCAMPS barks out to get your attention. He doesn't sound pleased. "At the behest of Nequeba in Squad Three, I'm sending you your ship. Don't count on me sending it again. If you plan on using it at all, try not to leave it behind. These CASKETs we send you around in aren't quite dirt cheap, asshole."

Just then, Squidhead opens the door to your little box. "Payback!" he orders, "Come out of that container for a second. I want to take a look at your injuries!" While it feels strange to get ordered around by a metal sphere with tentacles, you comply, climbing back out into the dim twilight. Squidhead looks your back over briefly and then takes some tools out of his repair kit, beginning to patch you up. He pulls out a number of sharp, jagged purple crystals and drops them on the ground as he works; presumably remnants of whatever hit you in the back.

Before long, he finishes, and you get back into the container.

~~~

It's a while before you really see the light of day again. The next time you do, Squidhead's CASKET is sitting on the ground at the bottom of a startlingly deep ravine, right at the mouth of a cave. There aren't any enemies in sight, but nevertheless, Squidhead has put up his ship's mounted shield in front of the cave entrance. Everyone else has charged into the cave to assist in helping out Squad One, leaving you alone.

You get out and stretch your legs, wondering where SCAMPS was sending your ship, and if it's already arrived.

DigitalDuck wrote:"... something beginning with T. Can you guess... wait, do you guys even speak English? Perhaps it doesn't begin with T in your language. Perhaps your language doesn't even have a T."

You start back with your game of I Spy. "... something beginning with a T. Can you guess..." Then a thought occurs to you. "Wait, do you guys even speak English? Perhaps it doesn't begin with a T in your language." You find this this troubling, but then realize something thoroughly depressing: "Perhaps your language doesn't even have a T..." That would indeed be a cause for great sorrow.

Meanwhile, Blake is yelling something over the comms about fighting stuff, and then he speeds off in a weird, random direction in his ship. Funny. He never really seemed much of a bright one.

The beings seem thoroughly disapproving of your lack of military prowess, and seem to ponder for a moment whether you're even worth controlling. "Hey, I can hear you guys, you know," you point out, hurt. "How would you like to hear something else? This would be more fun with some background music." You begin to think of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4. Loudly.

Your mental captors find this thoroughly distressing, and decide you probably aren't much use for anything besides hauling rocks around. They then begin to contemplate how they could upgrade you.

You find yourself turning and starting to walk northwards.

Along the way, you start seeing vines and other unusual things. The vines seem pretty mad, but they move out of the way for you, letting you proceed. This continues for... a good while, during which time the only truly interesting happening is that you hear Ride of the Valkyries playing over the comms.

"YES! Make sure you turn it up to maximum, and no, I swear I'm not trying to splatter you against the tunnel ceiling! ...dumbass. Didn't you just read the manual? Why are you asking me this shit? Were you just flipping through it for the pictures?"